Over Tea
by BansheeRymm
Summary: Mulan just came home from the war against the Huns, and she brought back a sword and a man. This is Grandma Fa's thoughts and observations over tea.


Disclaimer: I do not own Mulan. The movie is owned by Disney. Besides... if I owned Mulan, they would be going on more adventures already. *shakes fist at Disney*

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It had been a good day, Grandmother Fa decided.

As she shuffled to the dining room⏤tea platter in hand⏤the old woman paused for a moment and smiled upon the scene at the table. Mulan and that _fine_ hunk of Captain she brought home were regaling her son with their stories from the war, short as it was. Zhou was listening quite intently, too, praising Mulan at some points and scolding her at others. Grandma shook her head as she approached the rowdy table. Who knew her granddaughter had guts enough to join the army?

As Grandma set the platter on the table and began passing out cups, she heard Mulan continue, "⏤and then, the avalanche actually tossed us over the cliff before I shot the arrow!"

"Ye⏤ wait, what? We went off the cliff?" Captain Li Shang, toughest of the tough, was now pale with the realization of exactly how close they had been to dying. Mulan covered her mouth, though it did little to muffle her sheepish chuckle. Fa Zhu choked on the tea Grandma Fa had just poured him at Shang's last comment. "Mulan!"

Mulan protested, "Well, what else could I have done?"

Grandma Fa, by this point, had her tea tray tucked under her arm and was well away from the dining room. She never heard her son's response to her granddaughter's recklessness, but the old woman could rightly guess: "It brings dishonor upon the family to disrespect your superiors! Blah, blah, blah…" While she was rather uncomfortable with Mulan putting herself in danger so willingly, Grandma Fa found she supported the rebellious life her granddaughter held away from the household responsibilities. She rather enjoyed listening to Mulan's adventures with Captain Li's soldiers.

The old woman found her daughter-in-law, who was holding a small green comb with a white flower atop it, moping in the kitchen. Grandma recognized the item immediately, of course; Mulan had worn it the evening before she ran away to the army. She sighed. Surely Fa Li knew the housewife position was not the life for Mulan. Gently, Grandma pried the comb away from the younger woman's hand and tucked it away in her _hanfu_. Fa Li looked questioningly at her mother-in-law, startled out of her reverie. "I know you wished for Mulan to have a woman's life," Grandma Fa said, patting Fa Li's hand, "but it wasn't for her. Both Zhu and I have realized this by now."

Fa Li protested, "If she had listened to me, she would have had a secure life! A _safe_ life. Now, she could be killed for what she does." She shook her head, rubbing her fingers against her temples. "I… will never understand why she chose to run to the army. Why she chose to stay a soldier..."

Smiling, Grandma Fa placed her hand upon Fa Li's shoulder before guiding her to the dining room doorway. Grandma closely gauged her daughter's-in-law reaction to the scene before her. Mulan was clearly having a grand old time sharing military stories with her veteran father, and the two seemed to be bonding over it. Captain Shang added a detail or two every few minutes, but for the most part, the two men were content to let Mulan lead the conversation. The captain seemed to be listening with special rapture.

Fa Li's brow furrowed over the scene. It was so surreal that a woman - a woman! - led the dinner conversation. Grandma Fa gave Fa Li a nudge and whispered conspiratorially, "Look at the way that captain looks at her, too… If it's marriage you're worried about⏤" The old woman had to chuckle. "⏤I daresay that won't be a problem in the near future!" At a glance, one could see some of the tension left Fa Li's expression, but she still looked uneasy.

Grandma tried again: "Mulan has brought far more honor to this family as a soldier than she ever could have as a housewife. Please be happy for her." Then, the old woman walked back to the dining room. Sooner or later, Fa Li would come to terms with Mulan's decision.

Grandma Fa sat herself on one of the cushions with practiced grace, though her old bones made the task a tad more difficult than it had to be. Mulan smiled at her across the table as her hunk of a man told the stories from his perspective, starting from their army encampment. Shang continued, "Ping was very... strange, at first." He stared at Mulan with _those_ eyes again, and she giggled. "That was probably because you weren't comfortable acting like a man yet."

Mulan, trying to stifle her smile, shrugged and commented, "I caught on quickly."

Grandma Fa watched the two heroes interact throughout the conversation, and she became more and more uncomfortable as they made googly eyes at each other. Briefly, Grandma thought that they might have spent more time with each other before becoming smitten. Where was the dedication? Then again, both Mulan and Captain Fine were fairly untraditional people.

Shang continued, eyes raised to the ceiling in thought, "That group of trainees really didn't inspire much confidence in me. It was only until after Mulan completed my first exercise that things began to improve."

"We had to climb to the top of a pole with two weights," Mulan added, "and retrieve the arrow Shang shot up there."

"Which you did brilliantly!"

"Why thank you, Captain."

Fa Zhu interjected with a cough. "So anyways… the trainees?"

"Ah⏤yes, sir." Shang looked embarrassed at having been caught in his obvious 'favoritism.' "Everyone completed my training with passable combat and survival skills or better. And a few excelled." His glance towards Mulan was telling.

"Soon after, we left for the front at the Tung Shao Pass." After pausing a moment, the young Captain laughed at an epiphany. "Though, I'm afraid some our fellow soldiers made Mulan feel uncomfortable with their raucous singing!"

Mulan laughed with Captain Shang as she, too, remembered the other soldiers' longing for a woman. Grandma Fa chuckled along with them, but she was growing rather irritated with the two. Did no one else⏤not even they!⏤see the obvious tension between them? And not the angry kind, either. The old woman pinched her nose as Shang continued to regale them with their adventures in the Tung Shao Pass, often complementing Mulan in some way or another on one of her especially heroic deeds.

When Shang finally reached the part where the doctor discovered Mulan's real sex, he had a small frown on his face. "I honestly didn't believe it when the doctor first told me," he explained, "but then I started putting the pieces together⏤the high-pitched voice, the extremely awkward behavior, the feminine features. That was when I decided to look for myself."

Shang spared the dinner table of the grotesque details, but he continued earnestly, locking eyes with Mulan as he did, "I suppose I wasn't even that angry because you ended up being a woman. I know you couldn't trust anyone, but I was more irked at the whole lie."

There was a few moments where the family reflected over what was said, and no doubt Mulan and Shang were deep within their own memories. Grandma glanced up at them. Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. They were still giving each other googly eyes! She turned to her son to see him oblivious to the increasingly affectionate interactions between the two. He sipped his tea thoughtfully, a hand resting upon his chin. Oh, that did it⏤

Much like Mulan did the night before she ran away, Grandma Fa slammed her tea cup on the table and stood, ignoring the way everyone's eyes turned to her in surprise. "Don't you give me those clueless looks, you lovesick fools!" Grandma scolded vehemently. She jabbed a finger at Captain Shang. "You! Flirt on your own time!"

She turned her finger to Mulan. "You! Man up and tell him how you feel to his face! Honestly, just kiss already!"

Everyone's jaw had dropped at Grandma Fa's explosive outburst. Fa Zhou, for once, was at a loss for words. His mother was usually a reserved⏤if sassy, at times⏤woman! Mulan's mind was working a mile a minute as a blush stained her cheeks. Was she really that transparent? How embarrassing! Like Mulan and her father, Shang was rendered speechless. This might be from where Mulan gets her attitude and guts, he mentally mused.

He then stood from the dinner table and bowed to Grandma Fa. She raised an eyebrow at his sudden courteousness until he stated, "I have disrespected you, Grandmother Fa. I sincerely apologize. By my leave…"

Mulan watched the captain leave with longing eyes before she turned to glare at her grandmother. Then she, too, jumped from her seat and ran after Shang. Grandma sat on her cushion and watched her go with a satisfied smile. Ah, she thought, such heavenly-smelling tea! I might just have a sip… As Grandma Fa had her tea, she could feel Fa Zhu's incredulous eyes on her. She spoke rather sagely, "You can't be that oblivious, Zhu. They have eyes for one another. All they needed was a push." As if it had been her plan to do so the whole time.

Fa Zhu finally composed himself and stood, setting his empty cup beside the teapot. He muttered, "I⏤ah⏤need to pray to the ancestors. Excuse me, mother."

With everyone gone, Grandma Fa was finally alone with her admittedly excellent tea and her thoughts. Ah, what an eventful dinner it had been. Short, but eventful. A smile graced her aged face as she poured herself another cup of steaming tea. This smile became wistful as her thoughts turned to her adventurous granddaughter, Mulan. Grandma was rather envious of Mulan. Indeed, she had noted many times throughout her granddaughter's childhood that Mulan had received her spunky personality from none other than Grandma Fa herself. It was for this reason that Grandma had begun to live vicariously through Mulan. She saw the things her granddaughter did as things she could have done when she was younger⏤only, Grandma Fa didn't have the will to do so. She had cowered behind a husband, like all good women should. She had missed all those chances to be free. To live!

Deep within her past, Grandma Fa stared out the window of the dining room. There, she saw Mulan walking with Captain Shang, arm in arm. Their heads leaned close together, as if they were planning some big conspiracy. Grandma grinned. She supposed they would be, depending on how well their little reunion went after her tantrum. And by how intimately they were holding each other, Grandma mused rather mischievously, she assumed it went quite well. She then raised an eyebrow as she noticed Shang planting a kiss on Mulan's forehead, who immediately devolved into stuttering female.

 _Woo, sign me up for the next war!_

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Hello, everyone! Long time no see, for those of you who previously followed my works. I haven't been feeling well recently since I've been pushing myself too hard with studying and such, and a few days ago, my immune system tanked. So, I've had lots of time. I binged watched Mulan and Mulan II over and over again. Don't ask why - I'm obsessive when it comes to video game or movie entertainment. Anyways, I couldn't get over my newfound obsession with Mulan, so I decided to get it out of my system by writing a one-shot. It's unedited, and I literally wrote it in - forgive me - one shot, but please let me know if there were any mistakes I made in the characters' personalities and dialogue. Please give me any constructive criticism you can. Thank you!

-BansheeRymm (formerly Kakomine)


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